


fame and fortune

by orphan_account



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Break Up, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Getting Back Together, Jealousy, M/M, Public Relations, Publicity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 21:17:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20319649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Fame changes things, sometimes not for the better.





	fame and fortune

They start dating before filming starts. Joe and Rami have a history together, one that goes back almost a decade. They almost dated when they were working on The Pacific. There were some drunken kisses during cast parties and some cuddling in their off moments on set. But it never went any further than that. Neither of them wanted to hurt their careers.

Joe had always kept his crush on Rami, though. Over the years he looked back on those stolen kisses fondly. Whenever they saw each other again over the years, they were always dating other people. So Joe started to consider their time on The Pacific as a sumemr fling.

But then he gets cast with Rami in Bohemian Rhapsody and everything changes.

Joe and Rami spend a lot of time together at first. It makes sense. They have a history together, but when filming is done for the day, they’re the only ones who don’t have someone to go home to. Gwilym and Allen both have girlfriends. Ben has just broken up with his girlfriend, but he seems to be spending a lot of time with Lucy.

So, naturally, Joe and Rami are left to their own devices. 

“I’m happy you were cast,” Rami says.

“So am I,” Joe agrees. They’re sitting on the couch in Joe’s apartment. Joe passes Rami a bowl of chips and salsa.

“This movie is a big deal. It makes me feel better that someone I know and trust is here,” Rami says. He smiles at Joe and it’s tender. It reminds Joe of how Rami used to look at him years ago when they were filming in Australia. Now he’s looking at him the same way but years later and in another country far from both their homes.

“So what do you think of the rest of the cast?” Joe asks. 

“I like the. Gwil is sweet. Allen will be a good scene partner. Ben has so much talent,” Rami says thoughtfully.

“He seems to like Lucy a lot,” Joe jokes.

Rami raises an eyebrow. “You think there’s something there?”

Joe shrugs. “Too early to know, but maybe?”

They move onto other topics after that, but asthey do, Rami starts sliding closer and closer on the couch until he’s up close next to Joe. It makes Joe shiver with excitement and he wonders if they’re going to continue what they started ten years ago.

They’re finishing up a third round of beers when Rami leans in close. “Do you remember the cast parties back in Australia?” he whispers.

Joe nods. “How could I forget?” he says, voice just as quiet.

“Do you still think about them?” Rami asks. He licks his lips and Joe’s eyes keep darting down.

“Yeah,” he says. 

“Me too,” Rami says. And then he leans in and kisses him. 

Joe groans into the kiss, wrapping his hands around Rami’s neck to bring him closer. He doesn’t know how long they makeout on the couch. Doesn’t know whether it’s minutes or hours, but it feels like an age. When they pull back, Rami smiles at him brightly.

“I’ve been wanting to do that since I saw you again,” he says.

“Oh thank god, I thought I was the only one,” Joe says.

And just like that, they’re dating. Rami worries that they’re going too quickly, but Joe thinks they’re making up for lost time. 

Joe has never been happier. Rami swears it’s the happiest he’s been as well. It makes filming fun, even when they’re stressed out because of everything happening on set. 

They haven’t talked about sharing their relationship with anyone outside of their friends or family. But Joe knows they have time. They’re not even close to finished with filming and the press tour is a year away.

So they have months together and he and Rami grow closer and closer as the months go by. Before Joe knows it, the holidays have arrived and he and Rami have been dating for six months.

Joe goes to New York and Rami goes to LA for the holidays. They FaceTime almost every day. Joe’s mom catches him smiling down at the phone like he’s a lovestruck teenager more than once.

When the holidays end, filming isn’t that far behind. Before they know it, it’s February and they’re partying it up at the wrap party.

Rami drinks more than usual and halfway into the party, when they’re dancing to the music, Rami kisses him out there in front of everyone. The entire cast and crew see them. It’s all in good fun and they clap after, but two days later, Rami gets a call from his publicist.

“They want me to date Lucy,” Rami says.

“But we’re dating,” Joe says.

Rami shakes his head. “They know. My publicist knows. The studio knows. They don’t want the audiences to know. Or the media.”

“Why?” Joe asks. He doesn’t like where this is going.

“They think it’ll make people not see the movie. And that it’ll make studios less likely to hire me for future roles.”

Joe frowns. It’s 2019 and he thinks this shouldn’t be a concern anymore. 

“That’s not all,” Rami says.

“How much worse can it get?”

Rami fills him in on the situation with Brian Singer and how the studio wants to avoid any negative press. How there are going to be some bad press moments when the movie premieres. Maybe more if the movie becomes an award season contendor. 

“So what do you want to do?” Joe asks. He feels like he already knows the answer.

It ends up with Rami and Lucy pretending to date.

Joe doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like it at all. He feels a little betrayed. 

“I don’t like it either, but my team insisted it was the best plan,” Rami says. 

“It won’t last long, right?” Joe asks.

“Only until the Oscars,” Rami insists.

But it’s incredibly hard to watch Rami date someone else. Joe knows he should be the one in the photos and with Rami at events. Lucy might be his friend, but he hates her a little. It doesn’t make it much better when he’s invited to events with them. Because he’s only there as a “friend”, never as Rami’s boyfriend.

“You’ll have him back soon,” Lucy says. “I promise I won’t keep him from you all the time.”

He and Rami still try to spend time together. But their days and nights together get few and far between. Rami spends all his time doing pubicity events with Lucy.

Joe’s lonely. 

So he turns to Ben. Nothing romantic happens between them. Ben is still mourning the breakup with his girlfriend. And now he’s mourning the way Lucy dropped him to go spend time as Rami’s girlfriend.

So Joe comes up with his Cardboard Ben idea. It’s fun and it distracts him from everything going on. It makes him feel like he has something to keep himself entertained while his boyfriend is off spending all his time with other people.

“You sure you want to keep doing this?” Ben asks after the first couple Instagram posts.

“Yup,” Joe says.

“Okay,” Ben says skeptically. 

So Joe posts his pictures of Cardboard Ben and the fans go wild. It starts becoming a frequent thing.

Joe gets more and more into it. The fans give them a ship name and start genuinely thinking he and Ben are dating. Joe doesn’t do anything to deny it. He’s still a little annoyed and hurt that Rami has been spending so much time away from him. Weeks go by where Joe wouldn’t see him if it wasn’t for an event. 

He and Rami finally get a night together when the Golden Globe nominations are out. Joe insists that Rami spend some time with him isntead of attending a party with Lucy.

“I’m proud of you,” Joe says. He kisses him and pulls him onto the bed so they can cuddle.

“I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you,” Rami says.

“It’s okay. I get it, but don’t forget about me once you start getting all these awards,” Joe says. It sounds like a joke, but it’s anything but that.

“I would never do that,” Rami says.

Except, he sort of does. As awards season progresses, Joe gets invited to a bunch of ceremonies and he sometimes gets to sit near Rami, but Rami’s publicist is at every event. She makes sure that Joe and Rami aren’t too close. That Rami is affectionate with Lucy instead of with Joe. She watches Joe like a hawk to make sure he doesn’t let anything slip.

It’s awful. Joe can’t imagine two months of this behavior.

But then he hears Rami officially confirm his relationship with Lucy and he feels sick. He feels worse when Rami is kissing her on red carpets.

That’s his boyfriend. It feels like his ex cheating on him all over again. And Joe knows that Rami isn’t really cheating, that he’s pretending, but it still stabs him in the heart.

So he kind of picks the Cardboard Ben thing back up and ramps it up to ten. Ben’s a little uncomfortable with it. He doesn’t like the fans speculating that he’s really gay. But he’s a good friend and goes through with it.

“Rami won’t get jealous?” Ben asks.

“Maybe if he does, he’ll remember we’re dating,” Joe says.

Rami remains oblivious to it until Joe does his bed video with Ben.

“What’s this?” Rami says. He shows Joe the video on his phone. “My publicist sent it to me.”

Joe shrugs. “Just something I’m doing with Ben,” he says.

Rami frowns. “Is this because of me and Lucy?”

“Maybe.”

Rami sighs. “Joe, you know she’s not the one I’m in love with.”

Joe knows that, but it really is hard sometimes. He misses his boyfriend.

It gets worse as the Oscars approach. All Joe wants to do is hold Rami’s hand or kiss him, but he gets stolen moments between events. Rami has back to back events and dinners and receptions, and Lucy is at his side throughout all of them. Joe feels horrible.

When Rami wins the Oscar, Joe is of course thrilled for him. No one deserves it more than Rami. But it’s like a knife to his heart when he hears the planned speech Rami’s publicist wrote for him. He can’t even listen to Rami saying such loving things to Lucy.

At least he hopes this is the end of it.

But it turns out he’s mistaken.

“I want to extend it to the Met Gala,” Rami says.

“That’s three more months,” Joe says.

“Lucy has always wanted to go and I owe her something for pretending to be my girlfriend during awards season.”

Joe can understand that, so he says nothing and spend the next few months watching Rami and Lucy get photographed by the paparazzi. While they’re busy, he spends his time hanging out with Ben and making the fans on instagram crazy with his posts.

The Met Gala comes and goes, and Rami comes to him once again and tells him he wants to extend his contract with Lucy for six more months.

Joe almost bursts into tears.

“My team thinks it’ll be a good idea,” Rami says. “They said it’ll help me get more attention and more roles.”

“But what about us?” Joe asks.

“We’ll still get time together. I love you and won’t forget about you.”

Joe has to leave Rami’s apartment when he hears it. Lucy calls him a little while later and tries to apologize. 

“It’ll help me get the notice of fashion designers. And I have a show to promote in September,” she says.

Joe is usually easy going, but he almost hangs up on her.

He understands both their reasoning and he knows deep in his heart that Rami does love him. But there’s only one thing he has to do.

“We have to break up,” he tells Rami.

“What?” Rami asks, shocked.

“I’m not going to wait around for six months while you ignore me for publicity.”

“I thought you’d understand,” Rami says. “You’ve been in this industry for so long. You know how it works.”

“I do,” Joe says, “But you don’t need to do this.”

“I do, my team said it was the best option.”

“Your team doesn’t want you dating me!” Joe yells.

Rami flinches and looks like he’s been slapped. “That’s not true. They’re just helping me get better roles.”

Joe chokes back a sob. “No, they’re tearing us apart. You want to do this relationship with Lucy, go ahead. I’ll support you as a friend, but not as your boyfriend.”

Joe already knows Rami will choose his career over him.

It hurts. It hurts that he’s not enough for Rami. That this is how they had to end. He doesn’t respond to any texts for the longest time as he hides away and grieves. He’s loved Rami for so long and he was thrilled when they finally started dating.

But he didn’t want this.

It doesn’t get any easier as the months pass. He sees Rami sometimes and it breaks his heart a little more each time. He still cares about him, but he can’t stand to be around him. Can’t stand to read his interviews or look at any new photos of him.

And then, one summer day, he starts hearing rumors that break his heart completely.

“Heard Lucy was talking about weddings,” he texts. “Congrats. Hope you’ll be happy.”

Joe’s secure enough in his emotions that he has no trouble crying. He calls Ben and sobs for an hour on the phone while Ben tries his best to comfort him.

“You knew this might happen,” Ben says. “This is what happens in Hollywood. Everything is about publicity.”

“I know,” Joe says. “But it hurts so much.”

He’s interrupted by a knock on the door. When he looks through the peep hole he sees Rami. He tells Ben he’ll call him later. When he opens the door, Rami gapes at Joe’s puffy and tear stained eyes.

“What did you want?” Joe asks, sniffling. Rami never did respond to his congratulatory text.

“I’m not getting married,” Rami says.

Joe stares at him. “What?”

“We’re ending it in a couple months. There’s no engagement, no marriage. It’ll be over after both our shows come out in the fall.”

Joe almost can’t believe it. He slumps down into a chair, head in his hands. “Why?”

“I miss you,” Rami says. He sounds choked up and when Joe looks up at him, Rami as tears in his eyes. “I did what was asked of me, but I miss you so much. You’re the only person I want to date. I don’t want to pretend anymore.”

“Are you serious?” Joe asks. “Because I can’t take more heartbreak.”

“You shouldn’t have had to deal with this in the first place,” Rami says. 

“No, I shouldn’t have,” Joe agrees.

“I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you,” Rami says. He hesitantly leans forward and kisses Joe. 

“Is that a promise?” Joe asks.

“It is,” Rami says.

Joe kisses him again. He’s never going to let him go after this.


End file.
